Business

Amazon, Google Open E-book Stores in Brazil

Amazon and Google are now selling e-books in Brazil, both companies announced Thursday morning.

More than 1.4 million Amazon Kindle ebooks — 13,000 of which are available in Portuguese — are now on sale at amazon.com.br. Readers will be able to read books via Amazon's apps for iPhones, iPads, and Android phones and tablets, also released Wednesday.

Amazon will begin selling a country-specific version of its entry-level Kindle E-Ink e-reader, which costs $69 in the U.S., for R$299 (approximately U.S. $145) "in the coming weeks," the company said in a statement.

Amazon has rapidly expanded its Kindle line internationally over the past 15 months, beginning with the UK, France, Italy and Spain in late 2011, and extending to India and Japan over the course of the year.

Google launched an e-book store in Brazil on Thursday and also began renting and selling movies through its Google Play store, Jamie Rosenberg, VP of digital content at Google, announced in a blog post. Google Play content will only be accessible via desktops, and Android smartphones and tablets.

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